So there she is, my first capture of Saturn. I could use some optics between my camera and the telescope to enlarge the total area of sensor used, because it still is only a very small dot. But alas! The rings are visible (or should I use singular as it appears to be only one …

A couple of days back we had a clear night. So out came the telescope, and the first efforts to get the thing aligned and tracking right commenced! Orion was the target, and after having made a single 10 seconds exposure and seeing Orion appear on the screen of the camera I was dancing around …

So… after having had a dormant interest in astrophotography I took the plunge. Bought a second hand telescope and mount. Let the skies be clear and the nights be cold. Ehrm, not too sure about that last part. Details: Orion 200 mm F4.9 Newtonian reflector Celestron CG5-GT

So… I started running again, and not without success as it seems. Within a couple of weeks I managed multiple 10K’s in just over the hour (first one: 1h 12min, second one: 1h 4min, third one, a one hour run landed me 600 meters short of the 10K). All of this in Vibram FiveFingers Sprints. …

So, I turned 39, midlife crisis hit me like a freight train 😉 and I decided to start moving around somewhat more than I had done the last year. Out came the Vibram Five Fingers, Runkeeper on the iPhone and off I went. Five training sessions later I already hit two of my targets, and …

Long time. So update. Upon my realization that, in this space-time continuum it would be forbidden by some quantum effect to drill two holes on the opposite side of a piece of tube (my own personal versions of the elusive Higgs-boson), it was time to get some tools that would enable me to, at least, …

OK, Long overdue update since the last ‘almost ready to fly’ post.The craft was almost ready to fly, and it has flown. With only one caveat. Repeat after me: If you build it like a tank, it will fly like a tank. And tanks don’t fly all too well. Weight, weight, weight, weight, those are …

Well, that was a productive weekend! The second quad, is almost ready to fly. I decided to try something I saw somewhere in a forum, and that is mounting the motors not on top of the arms, but below them. The reasoning behind this is that a propeller can suck air from anywhere it wants, …

Small update. I finished the motor mounts. Where at first I tried with the same plastic material as I used for the center part of the frame, I now opted for some more aluminium. The result is quite acceptable I think. It also turned out that the frame is quite straight. With all four engines …

Long time. So update. Upon my realization that, in this space-time continuum it would be forbidden by some quantum effect to drill two holes on the opposite side of a piece of tube (my own personal versions of the elusive Higgs-boson), it was time to get some tools that would enable me to, at least, …

OK, Long overdue update since the last ‘almost ready to fly’ post.The craft was almost ready to fly, and it has flown. With only one caveat. Repeat after me: If you build it like a tank, it will fly like a tank. And tanks don’t fly all too well. Weight, weight, weight, weight, those are …

Well, that was a productive weekend! The second quad, is almost ready to fly. I decided to try something I saw somewhere in a forum, and that is mounting the motors not on top of the arms, but below them. The reasoning behind this is that a propeller can suck air from anywhere it wants, …

Small update. I finished the motor mounts. Where at first I tried with the same plastic material as I used for the center part of the frame, I now opted for some more aluminium. The result is quite acceptable I think. It also turned out that the frame is quite straight. With all four engines …

Building of a frame commenced. The basic idea is to use materials readily available from hardware stores, so that in the event of a tree, a head or Planet Earth intersecting with the flight path, things will be quite easily replaced, at least the frame will be one less thing to worry about. At the …

Since I got too anxious flying the glass fiber frame I bought (for fear of destroying it) I set out to build a second quad, but this time I want the frame to be made from materials that are readily available from hardware store’s, so that, in the event of a fatal crash (fatal for …

It’s been somewhat quiet at the Quad front. The reason for this is that I am quite afraid to crash my beautiful frame from Quadframe.com. Because, damn, do I suck at flying :). So, plans have hatched to create another one, but with a simple aluminium X-frame that I can go out and buy more of …

After having trimmed the quad, all seems to be quite a lot more controllable. Apart from some glitches in the pilot (who now and then panics and just closes the throttle, turning the quad into an expensive brick), and a possible glitch in stable-mode (after a while it seems to lose calibration and just drift …

Title says it all, yesterday evening the bugger flew! Not very majestically, or gracefully at that, but it flew. Oh, it crashed too, quite a few times actually. Quite a sturdy frame. The whole thing is as of yet un-tweaked and calibrated only so-so, which, in combination with my non-existing flying skills turned out not …